At this writing, American and Iraqi forces still face each other warily across the Saudi sands. Sooner or later, Iraq will likely have to reverse course. But beyond the question of how and when the immediate military crisis will be resolved, the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait has given momentum to the development of a post-Cold […]
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Posted inBooks
The Growth Puzzle
Here are two books with drastically different stories about growth and productivity in the American economy. The more persuasive of the two hasn’t got the attention it deserves.
Posted inWorking in America
Fetal Risks, Women’s Rights: Showdown at Johnson Controls
For the first time, women are gaining entry to “good” jobs in manufacturing. But some companies, like battery-maker Johnson Controls, say that because of potential fetal health risks, no fertile women need apply. Should the Supreme Court let that pol
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
The Greening of the Tax System
Would an environmentalist kill two birds with one stone? Not ordinarily. But taxes on pollution and waste can discourage environmentally harmful activities and produce revenues for environmentally beneficial programs.
Posted inEducation in America
Blackboard Jingle
It seems as if every conference I attend on the subject of American competitiveness (and there are many — the competitiveness industry is surely one of America’s most competitive) begins or ends with a speech by a prominent chief executive of a large American corporation about business’s stake in improving the quality of the American […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
The Great Immigration Debate
Congress is once again rewriting the immigration laws. How wide, and to whom, should we open that Golden Door? What goals should our national immigration policy serve?
Posted inAmerica and the World
Canada’s Health Insurance and Ours: The Real Lessons, the Big Choices
Contrary to a well-financed campaign by the AMA, Canada’s record in health care is exemplary. But is a Canadian model feasible in the U.S.?
Posted inEducation in America
Choice Ironies: Open Enrollment in Minnesota
Supporters and critics of school choice throughout the nation have predicted a big shock to the educational system if parents were given a say in selecting their children’s schools. Minnesota’s experience with school choice, the first statewide progr
Posted inFeatures
The Poverty of Neoliberalism
In the late 1970s, a group of one-time liberals began describing themselves as neoliberals. ‘We criticize liberalism,” Charles Peters, editor of the neoliberal Washington Monthly, wrote in 1983, “not to destroy it but to renew it by freeing it from its myths, from its old automatic responses…” Neoliberals often join conservatives in lambasting public programs, […]
Posted inFeatures
East Asia’s Challenge—to Standard Economics
The conventional wisdom these days is that government intervention impedes development. Why, then, have Korea and Taiwan grown so fast?
